I had never heard of
Ghent, Belgium until I did a search about cities to visit in Belgium,
but I still didn't pay it any mind. We asked some fellow travelers
and locals where to visit in Belgium, and there was some consensus.
Everyone said to skip Brussels (Kiwi living there said it was boring,
Ukrainian living there hates it), Bruges is nice but touristy,
Antwerp is okay, so they recommended Ghent. The worst thing about
Ghent is that we were only there for 24 hours. If you ever go to
Ghent, no less than 3 days will do. It isn't a large city, but it is
grand. The center is stunning, every place you turn is beautiful. I'm officially a fan girl.
Gravensteen is a castle in
the center, so bizarre to see a metro going by this medieval castle.
It's a castle famous for torture, thumb screws, guillotine, and all
that.
Joel got to enjoy some
Belgian beers, sadly we didn't get to a chocolate place in time. Like
most places we've been to so far, stores and such close at a
reasonable hour, you know, because work is not the end all be all. In all the architectural
beauty we also saw this cool street art alley.
Cool market hall where
there is a piano available so people can play when it strikes their
fancy. We heard a couple of people playing while we walked by.
Beautiful sunny views.
Bonus points to Belgium for being the first country of the trip
without rain. I know, it was only 24 hours. It's hard to put into
words, but this city really charmed me and all we did is walk around
for hours and hours.
So, I'm going to try to
keep this brief because I am behind on the blogs. I bet people love
to come to Amsterdam to let loose and party, that's just not my cup
of tea. However, Amsterdam is beautiful and has an interesting
history.
We went to the Red Light District because why does anyone go
to the Red Light District? THE HISTORY, of course. I'm very much
simplifying this but here is the gist: Amsterdam being an important
and powerful port (via the Dutch East Indies Company) which allowed
for the consistent contact of different cultures and an environment for
sailors in need of prostitutes. This developed in cultural acceptance
and turning an eye to activities with which you might not agree.
Apparently, the Red Light District had become so unsafe in the 70s
that even the police did not venture there due to hard drug-use. The
Netherlands deems all drugs hard drugs except marijuana. In an effort
to reduce hard drug-use police turn a blind eye to marijuana sales
and use, though technically it is illegal to grow it, sell it, etc.
Therefore there are cafes, where you can purchase and smoke
marijuana, not to be confused with a place where you purchase coffee
(these are called coffee houses). Prostitution became legal in the
90s and they also outlawed pimps. Let me just say, that there are a
lot of males window shopping, and it was just a weeknight. Are there
male sex workers? None, it was tried and it failed, not enough
interest. Our tour guide offered his theory: men say no to sex far
less than women, so women and men that proposition a man aren't
likely to need to hire a sex worker.So, today the Red Light District is shrinking because residents are sick of the tourist craziness; by next year the area for the district will become even narrower.
Amsterdam also has a
pretty sweet library. It's unlike any other library we've visited so
far. It's just giant, comprehensive, full of people, and doesn't
smell like urine at all! (I say this with the thought of SF Public
Library, Berkeley Public Library, Oakland Public Library main
branches.) Throughout the library there were several reserved tables
where business and community meetings were taking place.
Looking down on the children's section
The various floors of the library
Just a handy-dandy laptop station. You know, so you can feel awesome!
Interesting Facts:
Amsterdam was the first
city to oppose and fight back against the Nazis on behalf of their
Jewish community members. Unfortunately, the Nazis shut them down
bloodily. At the Anne Frank museum they interviewed a woman that
helped the family hide for 2 years and was imprisoned for it. When
Otto Frank approached her to ask her if she would help his family
hide she said, “yes, it goes without saying.” That really touched
me, I don't know that many people would answer that way.
Houses are tall and narrow
because the wider the home, the more you were taxed.
Rembrandt, first duck-face selfie in history
The Netherlands outlawed Catholicism because of corruption but people still practiced in "secret." Well, it was known that people were practicing but as since it wasn't hurting anyone, they let it be.
“How much would
you pay for a [Mission] burrito?”; this
has become one our official trip questions that we will ask each
other throughout our travels. Joel asked me at the beginning of our
Berlin stay, I said $10 USD, he said $20. Joely is in burrito
withdrawal. There were several Mexican restaurants in Iceland and
Denmark, but we were to cheap to go to them. Paying $20 for an actual
Mission burrito is one thing, paying $15 for something that is
mediocre at best is another thing. We decided to forgo a burrito in
Berlin as well.
Berlin is a huge city, we were there
for 6 days but only saw a small piece of it. We took a red-eye bus
from Copenhagen to Berlin, it was the most interesting bus ride I've
taken. The bus drove for a few hours and then it boarded a ferry,
like a cruise ship ferry, so at 1am we had to get off the bus for 2
hours and then board again. (I've never been on a cruise ship but
Joel tells me it was very similar.) So yeah, sleep was not happening
and by the time we slept we had been awake for about 22 hours.
Germany is the third country we have
visited on our trip, and the Berliners win friendliest people, by
far. As soon as we got to Berlin and were trying to figure out the U
Bahn (metro) 2 different people asked us if we needed any help. When
we got to a cafe a man chatted us up and made several
recommendations. It made an impression on me.
What else made an
impression on me? THE BEER. Beer is so cheap here, cheaper than other
countries we have visited, cheaper than the US, often cheaper than
water or soda. Why is Anchorsteam (San Francisco brewery) cheaper in
Berlin than San Francisco?! Result: I am drinking beer almost every
day, normally, I drink an average of half a beer a month.
Side rant: What's up Europe? Why won't
you give us water? Although tap water is drinkable in Denmark and
Germany, restaurants will only give you water if you buy a bottle. I
mean, part of this I am sure is because they know we are not
locals...but every single place will not give us water, only sell us
a bottle. There was one place that would give us tap water, but only
if we bought a drink first. We were at a museum and I asked if there
was a drinking fountain, the man replied, “Noooo, no. NO. no.” To
summarize, no drinking fountains either. Poor Joely is dehydrating
right before my eyes, ok, not really, but the man is used to drinking
a lot of water. Bottled water is not good for the environment, get
with the program Europe. The end.
We stayed at a hostel in the city
center for the first 2 nights in an effort to be a bit more social.
Fail. To be honest, we aren't trying that hard, why make all the
effort to chat other people up when I have Joel Webb? Also, we are
probably just too old for hostels and have no patience for the
various bros of different countries (Scottish bros here were super
annoying). It was Sacramento hot (90s) the first day, naturally, that
is the day we scheduled a walking tour. The tour was good and we got
to learn a lot about the history and see a lot of great sights.
When you see the hat man that means it used to be East Berlin
Check-Point Charlie, officially leaving the American sector
Brandenburg Gate
Memorial for the Jewish people murdered during WW2
Art installation...no, they are gas pipes above ground
We
also met this cool guy from Turkey who we will hopefully be staying
with when we visit Istanbul. He also told us about wonderful döner.
There was a large migration of Turks when Berlin needed labor to
rebuild and so döner came about as a meal alternative to pork. Döner
is goooood, think similar to chicken shwarma but thinly sliced and
crispy and cheap and so good. And this marks the end of the Iceland
diet (food is so expensive that you are too cheap to eat well)! We
also had this really great meal at a Syrian restuaruant, it was just
so delicious. Okay, one more food story. Mustafa's Kebap Shop is the
best meal we have had since we left the United States (3 weeks ago).
We had to wait 30 minutes in line, which is a short line for this
food stand, but it was completely worth it. It was a wrap (pretty
much a burrito) of döner goodness, with vegetables, and hummus, and
lettuce, lime juice, tahini...delicious, and only $5 USD! It was so
good that we went back 2 days later and waited 70 minutes for dinner,
and then rain did not thin out the line. Only thing they could
improve is that I need to teach those guys how to properly wrap a
burrito, their wrapping technique is so inefficient and bad that it
hurts my heart. I want to make it clear, I am not a burrito-wrapping
expert because I am Mexican, it's because I worked at Del Taco.
So for the next 4 nights
we stayed in the Kreuzberg neighborhood in Berlin, how to describe
it...it's like the Mission District, gentrified, lots of restaurants,
hip, etc. Since Berliners come from so many different cultures,
people can't readily tell that we aren't from Berlin which means they
keep talking to us in German. Here is how I respond: *puzzled look*
Nein? P.S. Pointing to things goes a long way. Kreuzberg is in
walking distance to a lot of things so we spent a lot of time just
meandering for several kilometers (watch out, we are thinking in the
metric system!) and then taking the magnificent U Bahn back home.
Yes, it is magnificent, it goes everywhere in Berlin, and the stat is
that in any given place in Berlin you are only 500 meters away from a
U Bahn train. Some places we went:
The old airport in West
Germany is now a park:
This park also has mini-golf
The Botanical Garden:
Saw a few foxes
These puppies are just over half a meter big! (2 feet)
Natural History Museum:
Sights seen:
Largest indoor aquarium in the world
Observations:
Bars seem to love 90s
music, lots of one-hit-wonders.
Typical middle-aged man
outfit for going out: Jeans, button-up shirt, blazer. We seriously
saw 6 men hanging out together all dressed in the same outfit.
Birkenstocks are very
popular here at the moment (or maybe always have been?)
Thought there was a 170
year bear absence in Germany, bears are everywhere in Berlin. Sometimes, the result ain't pretty:
Graffiti is all over Berlin. Most of it is just sloppy ground floor tags, but on our way to find out what-the-hell a schnitzel actually is we stumbled
across a bunch of good (or at least interesting) street art. The first one we saw (and the one that made me squeeeeaal and do a pathetic little hop) was by one of
my favorite artists, an Italian dude named Blu. Here it is:
For being a anonymous street artist, Blu is pretty well known and has made amazing art all over the world. But some of his most famous works were left in Berlin 8 years ago. This one showing two nearly identically creatures trying to pull masks off each other, one flashing west side the other east side, became particular iconic for the city of Berlin and we even saw a ton of postcards of it all over the city.
And this one was on the same street:
Blu and JR (a French artist who also worked on it with him) had a local group secretly paint over these with black paint as a statement against the city's housing policy and the resulting rapid gentrification of the area. They didn't like how the mural became a symbol of this new neighborhood and wanted to reclaim the art from the neighborhood. So I didn't think I'd get to see any of his works, which almost justifies my squeal. But what a badass thing to do. When destroying your art makes as strong as a statement as the making of the art then you're doing pretty well as an artist. But seriously check Blu out. I think his stuff is pretty incredible. Here's his website, and a couple collections of his: [link] [link]
So after all that excitement we needed to schnitzel. And it turns out a schnitzel is pretty much chicken fried steak. Pretty good though. But right across the street from our schnitzel we see a huge stretch of the Berlin Wall. It turns out this is called the East Side Gallery and is the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall. The east side of the wall faces a street and the west side the river, so the west side of it is just covered in a lot of really bad tags, but the east side has been commissioned to have a variety of murals covering the remaining wall. Some of them were great, others were not, but collectively it was an awesome experience to come across this and was definitely a highlight for me from our week in Berlin. Here are a bunch of pictures of this stretch of the wall, including one of a shirtless jackass wearing a horse head and playing a George Michael song.
I have no idea why Jean Reno and Juliette Binoche are on the Berlin Wall.
--
& here's the rest of our Berlin pictures [link]
